Of Foxes and Ninja
by SolitaryWordsmith
Summary: What would happen if Naruto was abandoned in the Forest of Death during the Chuunin Exams?
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fanfic ever. This chapter is so short only because I need to know if this fic is worth writing. If it is, then I will try to get in chapters as soon as I can and I will try to make them longer. Yosh! Let's do this!

"I hate sakura"- person speaking

'_I hate sakura'_- person thinking

"**I hate sakura"- **demon/summon speaking

'_**I hate sakura'**_- demon/summon thinking

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto -sob-

Chapter 1: Abandoning a Friend 

**--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**-****Forest of Death-**

"You are definitely his brother. If anything your eyes are even keener than Itachi's."

The three young genin had encountered the strange female Grass-nin in the Forest of Death. They had fought and Orochimaru had used a jutsu called the **Five-Pronged Seal** on Naruto and knocked him unconscious. Sakura threw a kunai and pinned him by his jacket to a tree.

"W-Who are you? What do you want!" Sasuke yelled.

"Kukukukuku. My name is Orochimaru. But as to what I want, that will have to wait until we meet again, which won't happen until you finish this test with the best score of all."

The scroll in the pale-faced shinobi's hand began to burn with green flames.

"The scroll!" cried Sakura.

"First you will have to defeat the hidden sound ninja that serve me," Orochimaru stated.

"What are you talking about! If you're finished then why don't you just leave!"

"But Sasuke and I will meet again." Orochimaru formed a seal and his neck elongated, and shot toward Sasuke. He sank his teeth into Sasuke's neck, and Sasuke screamed in pain.

Sakura screamed, "No! Sasuke!"

Orochimaru withdrew his fangs, leaving a trail of blood and his head returned to his shoulders. A marking consisting of three black tomoe appeared on Sasuke's neck.

"Y-you monster! What have you done to Sasuke!"

"The snake man smirked, "I simply gave him a parting gift. Soon Sasuke will seek me out. He desires my power." Orochimaru began to sink into the wood of the tree branch, his voice fading. "I enjoyed the demonstration of your skills. Kukukukuku." The sannin disappeared entirely.

"Aaaaaargh!" Sasuke screamed for the second time.

"Sasuke!" Sakura ran toward him. "What did he do to you!"

Screaming in pain, Sasuke fell unconscious and slumped in Sakura's arms.

"Naruto! Sasuke's hurt! Get over here now so we can help him!" Sakura called.

Naruto didn't move.

"Naruto your baka! Get up and help Sasuke!"

Naruto still didn't move. Sakura saw that he was unconscious also.

"That baka! If he just did something once in a while we wouldn't be in this mess!" Sakura muttered to herself. "I have to leave him here if Sasuke-kun is going to get medical attention soon!" She ran over to Sasuke, scooped him up in her arms, and dashed off into the trees. The setting sun began to cast shadows over the fallen boy, veiling him in darkness.

A while later, the kunai lost it's grip on the tree bark, sending Naruto down. He landed on a tree branch, and the impact made him wake up. As he recovered from his fall, he saw two figures drop down from the leaves. They both wore similar dark cloaks.

"It seems our little Naruto-kun has decided to take a nap." Said the shorter of the two. His headband depicted a leaf with a gash traveling through it.

Turning, the taller one spoke. The setting sun shone on his hitai-ate (A/N: is that how you spell it?), revealing him to come from the Village Hidden in the Mist and also had a scratch through it. "Should we take him now, Itachi, or wait until he becomes stronger?"

"I think we should capture him now. If we don't, we might miss our chance and he will get too strong for us to bring him back to the base. Leader-sama would not be pleased." They both started walking towards him. The smaller one placed his pale fingers on Naruto's neck.

'_Why does he wear nail polish?'_ was the last thing he could think before he fell back into unconsciousness

Vocabulary:

**Gennin**- lowest rank of shinobi

**Jutsu**- technique

**Kunai**- throwing knife

**Baka**- idiot

**REVIEW!!!!!! **Or I will find out where you live and send my monkey minions after you!

I need at least 15 reviews before I post the next chapter.

Here are some women Naruto could pair up with:

Hinata

Tenten

OC

Tell me if you think I should put more possibilities in, names and parts for the OC, and if you think he should get more than one girl.


	2. Chapter 2

Well, looks like I'm updating early. This is the second chapter to Of Foxes and Ninja. Say thank you to the reviewers! Non-reviewers should burn in hell!

**Kaiya Reimiya**- Me likey the idea. I probably won't put it in the real story, but I might make a short somewhere in between

**Challenger**- I might vote on my own polls just to use an idea like that

**Kiara Kitsune**- Sorry, I don't really like writing yaoi

**IEatChicken**- I've read your stories! I think you're a great writer (nothing to do with anything, I'm just feeling special right now)

Here are the results of the poll. I will keep it up for a while! I've also added some competitors.

Hinata-2No Hinata-

Anko -No Anko-

Tenten-2No Tenten-

OC-2No OC-

Kurenai-No Kurenai-

Temari-No Temari-

"I hate sakura"- person speaking

'_I hate sakura'_- person thinking

"**I hate sakura"- **demon/summon speaking

'_**I hate sakura'**_- demon/summon thinking

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto -sniff-

I have developed a cursing system. From now on, mild curses will be printed as #$ with the symbols as

the number of symbols for how many letters there are, and horrendous curses shall be 3#$ with the number of symbols for the amount of letters.

See you 3#$&( later!

Chapter 2: The Green Savior and the Akatsuki 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**-Forest of Death-**

Sakura hovered over Sasuke in the safety of the tree's roots. "He's finally breathing easier now, but he still has a high fever. 'It's up to me to save Sasuke and prove I'm worthy of Sasuke's love! Cha!' screamed Inner-Sakura.

After hours of watching her crush, Sakura began to sleep. Unbeknownst to her, three figures watched from the treetops across the clearing. One had a large fur coat, bandages covering most of his face, a large metal gauntlet with holes in it on his right arm, and a hitai-ate bearing a musical note. His teammate was a girl with a green shirt, a gray skirt with black blotches, and a matching scarf. He began to laugh. "Found you."

"All right," he said to his teammates, " we strike a dawn, just as Orochimaru ordered. Remember, the Uchiha is our only target."

"Yeah, whatever. I just need something to kill already." Said his other teammate. He had dark, spiky hair a loose, tan shirt, a black shirt under it, and another scarf like the girl's.

Sakura slowly began to wake up, noticing daylight creeping through the trees. She could hear birds chirping in the distance.

Suddenly, the bushes began to move. Sakura pulled out a kunai, and turned around to see…. a squirrel eating a nut. _'Whew.'_ She watched as the squirrel began to run towards her. _'Wait!'_ She threw her kunai in front of it, making in dash away in fear.

Sound Nin's POV

"Do you think that she noticed the exploding tag, Dosu?" asked the spiky-haired boy.

"No, Zaku," Dosu replied. "It was something else. Let's go."

"Hai," they replied.

Dosu jumped down near the pink-haired girl, Zaku and Kin following behind him.

"It isn't smart to stay awake and keep watch the whole time."

The girl gasped, and turned toward him.

"Now little girl," said Dosu. "Wake Sasuke-kun. We want to fight him." He could see her hand slowly reaching for her kunai holster. She stood up.

"Who are you! We know Orochimaru is behind all this! And what's that bruise on Sasuke's neck? Why do want to fight him like this?"

Dosu's eye's widened. _'So she knows. I guess we'll just have to kill her also.'_

"So, you know who we work for. I guess I get to kill the Uchiha after I kill you." Zaku started walking towards her.

"Wait Zaku," warned Dosu. "So girl, you think you could trick me? This dirt is a different color than the rest, and this grass hasn't grown here. It must have been recently disturbed. What a pathetic excuse for a trap."

"You must have thrown the kunai so that the squirrel wouldn't spring the trap."

"Let's kill her." The three of them leapt toward her. Dosu noticed her smile, and pull out a kunai.

'_What?'_

She cut a string and a log came falling down from the treetops.

'_Another trap? No matter.' _Smirking, Dosu placed his arm with the gauntlet on the log and made a seal, blasting the wood apart. They landed in front of her.

"Foolish little girl, you need to work harder if you want to get anywhere in the shinobi world. Put some effort into taking care of you teammates, for one." He could see the guilt in her eyes. "But that's right. You abandoned your friend. That is very interesting. Konoha ridicules the other villages because they put the mission before their teammates, but here I see a genin kunoichi from the leaf village who abandoned a wounded team member for the sake of getting a less wounded one medical attention. You are the very worst type of shinobi." And with that said, he charged.

Out from the tree came our favorite, extraordinarily coifed, spandex-wearing quirk of nature. "Konoha Senpu!"

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Naruto awoke to find himself in a sewer. He strained his eyes to see through the gloom, and was startled at what he saw. A humongous gate loomed over him. It had a piece of paper with the kanji for 'Seal'

Being as dense as he was, Naruto decided to ask if anyone lived there. "Hellooooo! Anyone there?" he shouted, walking up close and looking inside.

A huge pair of crimson eyes with slitted pupils opened right in front of him.

He fell backwards. 'Holy crap!' Through the bars of the cage he could see a fox with nine, majestic tails

A gigantic laugh echoed around the chamber. "Well, it seems that you have finally decided to come and visit me here. Welcome to my humble abode, kit,"

"Ummmm…Where am I?"

"We are inside your mind…Or your stomach. I'm not exactly sure."

"How are we in my mind? The placed is huge!" Naruto asked.

"I have always wondered that also, seeing as your brain is so tiny."

"Are you insulting me!" Naruto screamed at the behemoth.

"Yes" it deadpanned.

"Who are you and why are you in my mind!"

"**Who** am **I**? I am the greatest being in the universe! The King of the Bijuu! The Wielder of the Five Elements! The all powerful Kyuubi!"

Seething, Naruto rose up. "You're the Kyuubi? You're the (insert curse word here) who made my life a living hell! You—!" He continued screaming obscenities at the massive entity until Kyuubi blew air at him, sending him back down off his feet.

"Listen kit! I know how you've been treated during your life. It's not my fault that the villagers of your worthless village didn't respect your Hokage's last wish."

"What last wish?"

"A few years after I was sealed, I overheard your old Hokage talking about how the Fourth Hokage wanted you to be seen as a hero, and not as a reincarnation of me."

"Why didn't I hear it?"

"You were unconscious at the time. Using your senses, I can see, touch, smell, taste, and hear whatever you do whenever I want."

"Okaaay. So what happened to me."

"After that snake used the sealing jutsu on you, which cut my chakra off from your chakra pathways, you fell unconscious. Pinky threw a kunai that pinned you to a tree before you hit the ground. The snake-man used a jutsu that caused the Emo-Uchiha to faint. The snake then left and Pinky escaped with the Uchi—."

"THEY LEFT ME?"

"Yes, gaki, they left you. Anyway, after a while, you fell on a branch, and two people captured you in your unconscious state and brought you here. Their names were Uchiha Itachi, and Hoshigaki Kisame."

"Itachi…Uchiha? But I thought Sasuke was the last one! Didn't somebody kill off his whole clan?"

"Yes. Itachi was the one who did it."

"So he must be the one Sasuke wants to kill."

"He is. Itachi wanted to test himself so he killed all of his clan. He left Konoha and joined an organization called the Akatsuki. Hoshigaki Kisame engaged in murder and rebellion in his home country, fleeing Mist he also joined the Akatsuki."

"Who are the Akatsuki?"

"The Akatsuki are a group of S-ranked criminals whose goal is to control the world. To do that, they need to capture all of the jinchuuriki, and extract their bijuu. Jinchuuriki are individuals who have bijuu, or demons, sealed within them."

"Like me."

"Yes. Like you. Their signature look is a knee-length black cloak with red clouds on it, and straw hats. They each also have rings with a different kanji on all of them. The kanji are 'Zero', 'Blue-Green', 'White', 'Scarlet', 'Boar', 'Sky', 'South', 'North', 'Three', and 'Sphere'. They all also wear the forehead protector of their original village, and wear purple nail polish, which I think is quite fashionable."

"So these people want to remove you from the seal?"

"Correct."

"What will happen to me if they do?"

"After they remove me, you will die."

"Die! B-but is there any way to stop them from extracting you?"

"Luckily, there is a way. You would have to at least partially fuse your soul with mine if you do not want them to take me and kill you."

After a moment of thought, Naruto decided that fusing would be the best idea. "How do I do it."

"Here," the fox said, and plucked a crimson hair from each of his tails with his mouth. "Take these hairs and place them on the seal like… the sun's rays." (A/N: think what little kids do around their suns) Naruto did so, and they stuck there. You have to rip off part of the seal. When you do, I will give you one-ninth of my chakra, or one tail, and also fuse one tenth of my soul with yours. This will prevent them being able to extract me without killing both of us. As you get stronger, I will give you more of my tails until you receive all nine. Once you do, all of my chakra will be fused with yours and I will have given you nine tenths of my soul."

"Oh, well—."

"You will also become all-powerful."

"HELL YEAH!!!"

"Three of the nine tenths are my body. You will have versions of things that have to do with the six senses, such as ears and eyes."

"Six sense?"

"The sixth sense is what most humans think of as the feeling of someone watching you. What this really is, is what remains of their animal instinct.

"So, kit, will you do it?"

Naruto walked up to the seal. "How much should I rip off?" he asked.

"About a quarter should be enough. During the fusion, I will be enlarging you chakra coils with my chakra."

Naruto placed his hands on the top of seal and slowly tore it down to the center, and across. The torn piece floated to the ground.

"What now?"

"Pain."

"Wha-Aaaaargh!" Naruto started fading back into his body.

"You will wake up when the transformation is done, if your lucky." Kyuubi called to his rapidly retreating essence. Then everything faded into darkness.

Bu, unfortunately, Naruto wasn't very lucky. He woke up to searing pain. He could feel something within him growing. He tried to open his eyes, and could vaguely make out four figures: Two tall ones, a shorter one, and an even shorter one, who seemed to be hunched over. He noticed red chakra whipping around the room before falling back into a blissful sleep.

Naruto slowly regained consciousness. Trying to ignore a splitting headache, he sat up and took in his surroundings. He was in a dark, cave-like room. He had been sleeping on a white mattress on the stone floor. Peering into the darkness, he could make out a flat table in a far corner with some unlit candles placed on the center. On the far side of the small room was a heavy door. He slowly got up and moved toward the door, trying to suppress his dizziness. He placed his ear on the hard wood but heard nothing. After a few moments of silence, he went to the table and lit the candles with some matches he found on the table. Shielding his eyes against the sudden flare, Naruto could finally inspect his surroundings.

He could see that the whole room was made of stone. There was a mattress in the corner, and the table pushed up against a wall. On the opposite wall was a mirror. Naruto approached it. Looking at his reflection, he noticed a few changes.

His hair had become more unruly, had grown a bit, and had silver streaks, like a badger's markings, cutting through his normally pure-blond hair. His fingernails had grown longer and were pointed, like claws. On his face, his whisker markings had become darker. His eyes were their normal blue, but the pupils had become slitted. He also had two, silvery, fur-covered fox ears with golden tips (A/N: like the kyuubi's. not like a cat's ears) coming from the sides of his head. Removing his shirt, he noticed that he had put on more muscle, and had lost nearly all the baby fat on his body.

'I look so BADASS!' he thought, wagging his tail with pleasure. Wait, tail? He turned his body away from the mirror and looked at the glass. Protruding from the small of his back was a long, bushy, silver fox tail with a golden tip, similar to his ears. He moved it around experimentally, rubbing its tip with his hand. He put his shirt back on. And made his way toward the door. He tried the latch and suprisingly, it was open. He peeked out into a corridor with other rooms lining the sides and began to creep down to the right.

A voice rang out from behind him, "Where do you think you're going?"

'Well, shit.'


	3. Chapter 3

Here is the third chapter. Once again, non-reviewers should burn in hell!

-sigh- I've abandoned my cursing system. I was too troublesome.

**Actionliker**: Kakashi will not be a jerk. I hate the fics where in the beginning Kakashi is all "people who abandon their teammates are worse than trash." And then suddenly "Naruto you are a horrible ninja." And leaves and then afterward, after someone tells him off "oh, no. What have I done? –sob-." Also, they will berate Sakura, but Sasuke hasn't done anything wrong yet.

I LOVE AKATSUKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the results for the poll. I took some off because I can't really think of how to write it.

Hinata-4No Hinata-5

Anko-1No Anko-

Tenten-3No Tenten-

OC-8No OC-

Temari-No Temari-

Looks like OC is in the lead!

"I hate sakura"- person speaking

'_I hate sakura'_- person thinking

"**I hate sakura"- **demon/summon speaking

'_**I hate sakura'**_- demon/summon thinking

I'm going by what I said and putting **Challenger**'s idea in anyway.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto

Chapter 3: The Preliminaries and Meeting the Gang 

Rock Lee jumped among the trees. He grasped a limb with his bandaged hands and swung to a stop, alighting upon the limb. He remembered how he met up with his one and only love.

Flashback 

He walked up to the pink-haired beauty, (-_coughspitcoffeehurlvomitcoughhackcoughcoughdie-_) "I am Rock Lee. You are Sakura, right?" He showed her his thumbs-up. Guy-sensei had told him that it would always get a girl. "Will you be my girlfriend? I shall protect you with my life!" His teeth flashed.

She just stared, "Definitely…not."

"B-but why not?"

"Because you're a weirdo," she replied. He hung his head in dejection.

"Hahahaha!" Naruto laughed at him.

End Flashback 

His mind traveled back to the time he and his teammates had separated in the Exams.

Flashback 

He and his teammate had stopped for a break. The female of his team, Tenten, was sipping a cup of water. Her brown hair was tied up in two identical buns. She wore a pink and yellow Chinese shirt, and the standard blue Konoha shinobi pants.

"All right, it's time to go. It's almost night and soon the other teams will begin resting up. Then, we strike."

The one who spoke was a boy with long, straight, brown hair. He wore his Konoha hitai-ate around his forehead. It had two long, black strips of cloth hanging down from the sides. He also wore a white coat and blue pants. His skin was pale, and his eyes were devoid of pupils, leaving them pure white. Bandages wrapped around the whole length of his right arm. He was swinging a kunai with the arm.

"You both know the plan," he addressed his teammates. "We split into three directions. Whether we find another team or not, we meet up back here at this spot." He flung the kunai decisively into the ground in the middle of the group.

"Hai, Neji." They nodded and jumped away.

End flashback 

Rock Lee was jerked out of his memories as he heard a rustle, and ten leafs began to float down to the forest floor.

'YOSH! If I can catch all twenty leaves before they hit the ground, then Sakura-chan will fall in love with me, but if I don't then she will never love me! I will show her I am worthy of her love!'

He flung himself off the branch.

He caught the first on, "One!" He caught a second, "Two!" He caught a third and a fourth, "four, five!" He continued snatching the leaves as he and the leaves fell to the ground. "Six, Seven, Eight, nine, ten eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen!"

Something caught his eye. It was a squirrel, but it was flailing around, and struggling to removed the flaming exploding tag stuck on it's back. Rock Lee landed on the ground, and leaped toward it. He quickly peeled off the tag and extinguished it. "There you go little friend. 'Who could do such a thing!' You are safe now." He peered at the last fallen leaf. 'I suspect Sakura will never love me' he thought mournfully. He began to start moving back to his team's meeting spot when he heard a faint crash. With the squirrel on his shoulder, he dashed toward the source of the sound. Peering through the bushes, he saw three nin flying through the air, pieces of wood falling around them. One wore a gray, long, fur coat, and had masks covering most of his face. The other male on the team had spiky hair, a tan shirt, and a scarf. The girl had a green shirt, long black hair, and another scarf adorning her shoulders. Only then did he notice what they were falling towards. Sakura was kneeling on the ground, and he thought he saw Sasuke in the tree behind her. He jumped to help her.

"Konoha Senpu!"

A green-clad boy spun, and kicked each of the sound ninja in different directions. Sakura could only stare. The boy had black, shiny hair in a bowl cut. His eyes seemed insect-like and he had extremely large, fuzzy eyebrows. He wore a bright green, one-piece spandex suit. He wore his Konoha hitai-ate with red cloth around his waist, had bandages wrapped around his arms. He wore bright orange, striped leg warmers, and had a plump squirrel perched upon his shoulder. He held his arm outward, palm facing up.

"W-what are you doing here, Lee?"

"I have promised to protect you. And that I shall. I will always be for you, Sakura!" He looked around. "Where is Naruto. I don't see him here."

"I had to leave him farther back. I couldn't carry them both after our fight with a ninja named Orochimaru, so I left Naruto there."

Lee tensed. "Sakura, do you think he is…" he trailed off.

"I-I don't know." She replied.

"I see." He slowly set the squirrel down beside him. "Leave now, little one." The squirrel ran off into the brush. "Sakura. Even though I do not agree with your actions, I will still protect you with my life!"

"B-but why are you helping me. In the Exam, we're rivals, enemies."

"I have already told you, Sakura. YOU ARE MY ONE AND ONLY LOVE. I SHALL PROTECT YOU UNTIL THE DAY I DIE!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, the "flames of youth" burning in his eyes..

'He's still weird.' Sakura thought.

Flashback 

"Will you be my girlfriend? I shall protect you with my life!"

End Flashback 

Dosu watched the two with mild interest. He brought out their heaven scroll from his pouch. He sighed, "Zaku, I'll let you take Sasuke. I'll kill the freak." He turned to address the spandex-clad boy. "It seems you excel in taijutsu." He pulled up his sleeve, revealing his sound armband. "Now I get to have a little fun," and with that, he attacked.

'Even if I know about his attack, I am still outnumbered three to one. I will have to be careful.' He plunged his arm into the earth in front of his, and raised up a tree root, nearly splitting it. Dosu was forced to jump back.

'Wow. Lee is the real deal.' Sakura thought.

Neji and Tenten were gathered around the kunai Neji had thrown earlier.

"Neji," Tenten asked, "why do you think Lee is late? He's never late. You don't think—"

"No, probably not. But we go and find him anyway. The only thing that could have happened to hold him up is if he ran into some enemy shinobi. Strong one, at that."

"Let's go." They leaped off into the trees.

Dosu dashed again and tried to punch Lee in the face. Lee blocked with his arms, grabbed Dosu's wrists, and threw him away. As soon as he had landed, Lee flash and appeared over the sound nin.

'Fast,' he thought. Lee punched Dosu in the gut, driving him into the ground. 'Strong, too!' Lee went for another punch, which Dosu blocked. Dosu tried to kick him, but he pushed away, and skidded several feet.

'He's to strong.' Lee thought to him self. 'I'll have to use **that**.' He unraveled his bandages on his arms.

He suddenly vanished. 'Where did he go?' Dosu questioned himself. Lee appeared beneath him and kicked him in the chin, sending him upward into the air. He pushed off of the ground and leaped under the sound nin. The bandages wrapped around Dosu's body.

'I must protect Sakura!' thought Lee. As they began to fall, Lee pulled and forced the pair into a spin. '**PRIMARY LOTUS**!'

'Kuso. If he finishes that attack, Dosu will be finished,' Zaku thought from the sidelines. 'I don't have enough time to save him, but I have to take down Sasuke before that green kid recovers!' He dashed over to the tree that Sasuke was under. Looking toward the middle of the clearing,, he saw Kin desperately try to save him by using a jutsu to soften the soil. She was too late.

They slammed into the earth. Lee skidded away, panting. He saw the results of his attack as the dust cleared.

Dosu was stuck in a pile of dirt, his back bent at an unnatural angle. He slowly fell backwards, exposing the rest of his body. He was dead.

Zaku stopped his rush, and dashed over to his teammate. Kin, seeing Zaku preoccupied, ran over to kill the Uchiha. Sakura stood in her way. Nervously, the pink-haired girl threw three shuriken, and went through a series of hand seals, 'I hope this works.'

Flashback 

Sakura leaned heavily on the stump. Across the training grounds, a log riddles with cuts and gashes fell to the ground. Kakashi looked up from his _Icha Icha: Paradise_.

"All right, I think you've gotten it down fairly well. You can take a bre—," he looked at Sakura. She had collapsed from exhaustion. 'Tsk tsk, still not enough stamina. We'll have to work on that later." He picked her up, and began to walk her back to her house."

_End Flashback._

She finished the seals. '**Cherry Blossom Flurry!**' (A/N: I'm going to have most of her attacks be based on cherry blossoms/wind. Think Rukia's brother in Bleach. I'm still going to hate Sakura, but she won't be too weak.) The shuriken turned pink, blasted apart and the air became a flurry of cherry blossoms. They flew at the female sound ninja, cutting her all over her body. She cried out in pain, and fell heavily onto the ground, her throat cut.

"You bitch! Zaku screamed. Turning to Rock Lee, he raised his arms and shouted, "**Zankuha!**" A wake of wind and sound blasted from the holes in his hands, blowing Lee away, and knocking him out. "Now I'll torture you, and kill you!" he screamed at Sakura.

Scared, Sakura tried to back away. Zaku walked toward her, and drew a kunai. Sakura continued to back away, until her back hit the tree behind her. Zaku took out some shuriken and threw them at her, effectively pinning her to the tree. She flinched in pain from the shuriken nicking her shoulders and sides, and tried to pull away but Zaku ran toward her and punched her in the stomach. "Now you are going to feel some pain, and before I kill you, I'll make you watch me slit the Uchiha's throat." Sakura tried to punch him, but Zaku caught her clumsy attempt by the wrist and snapped it. Sakura cried out in pain, and Zaku punched her in the face, sending her spinning away. The shuriken tore her clothes, revealing her undershirt. Zaku walked over to her, picked her up by her neck, and slammed her into the tree.

A pulse of chakra came from Sasuke's motionless body. 'What?' Zaku thought.

Team 10 consisting of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji, had taken a short rest. Ino and Shikamaru were lying on the ground, and Chouji was sitting in a tree, eating.

"Aaaargh! There doesn't seem to be anyone weaker than us!" Ino screamed.

"Keep your voice down. We might not be the weakest. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke might just be weaker than us." Said Chouji.

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!"

"What?" Chouji protested.

"Naruto and Sakura might be the ugliest and lamest ninja in all of Fire Country, but nobody makes fun of my Sasuke and gets away with it!"

"Calm down, Ino." Shikamaru said. "Chouji could be right. The last time we saw them, Naruto and Sakura were weaker than us. Sasuke is stronger than each of us, but Team 7's teamwork is probably the worst in years. Ours is probably the best out of all the gennin. If we formulate a plan, we have a pretty good chance of beating them."

"Hey, guys. I can see something weird." Chouji said from the tree.

Ino and Shikamaru jumped up next to him. "What is it?" Chouji just pointed. They looked

A dark, purple chakra was streaming out of a clearing straight ahead from them. "What could it be?" Ino inquired.

"It's chakra, but it's not normal. It seems more powerful. Almost…demonic."

"Let's go check it out." The three went off into the darkness.

Zaku watched as dark purple chakra exploded out from the Uchiha. The wave of evil chakra blasted him off his feet, releasing his hold on Sakura. Sasuke, the chakra swirling around him, stood up and laughed. He had black, flame-like marks covering his skin.

'This is…Sasuke?' Sakura thought.

"This power," Sasuke murmured. "Where did this power come from? It must have been that man…Orochimaru. I wonder what I could do with this power." He laughed again, and disappeared.

'Where'd he go?' Zaku thought to himself.

"What do you mean," said a voice from behind him. "I'm right here." Zaku tried to turn around but he was hit from behind, sending him flying across the clearing. Grunting, he pulled himself back on his feet.

"I'll show you, Uchiha." He raised his arms toward the raven-haired boy and Sakura. "**Zankuha!**" The wave of sound carved a path through the forest. "Hmph. Totally blown away."

"Who?"

'Kuso. Not again.' He felt hands latch onto his wrists, and a foot pressed against his back.

"You seem very attached to these arms." Sasuke snickered evilly. "Let's see how you are without them!" He began to pull Zaku's arms from their sockets, until he tore them fully off. Zaku screamed in pain. 'I wonder how powerful my jutsu's are now.' Sasuke thought. He threw Zaku up into the air and formed hand seals. "**Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!**" (A/N: I know the Japanese name for this jutsu, but I can't have some in English and some in Japanese.) Still screaming, Zaku was engulfed in a huge fireball. Even Sasuke was shocked at the size. 'Whoa.' A dull thump heard and Zaku's charred body fell to the ground. 'This power is…amazing' He noticed Sakura still on the ground riveted to the spot in fear. 'I need somebody else to kill.' "He began to walk towards her.

Team 10 peered through the brush at the clearing. They could see three dead ninja. One with a broken back, one with cuts all over her body, and one looked like he had been burned to death. They could finally see what the chakra was coming from.

"That chakra is coming from Sasuke?" Ino asked, disbelievingly.

"Apparently, yes. It looks like those marks all over his body are generating it. I wonder where he got those?" Shikamaru answered.

"Hey guys. What do you think he's doing?" Chouji inquired.

"I don't know Chouji!" Ino whispered loudly at him. Sasuke suddenly grabbed Sakura by the neck and pushed her against the tree behind them. "H-Hey! He's hurting Sakura!" she yelled. "Stop him, quickly!"

Shikamaru put his hands in a seal. His shadow suddenly extended out from his body, and traveled towards Sasuke.

Sasuke stopped. He couldn't move!

"**Kage Mane no Jutsu,** success." Slowly, the duck-haired boy turned his head. There was Team 10 crouching in the bushes. They jumped out.

"Sasuke! What do you think you're doing! You're hurting Sakura!"

"Doing? I'm killing! I have so much power! Why shouldn't I kill the weak?" he answered evilly.

"All right, Sasuke." Shikamaru answered. A shadow of a hand rose of from Sasuke's feet. It coiled around his body, and finally rested on his throat. "Force the chakra back, and nobody gets hurt."

"BAKA!" Ino screeched. "People have already gotten hurt!"

Shikamaru ignored her and kept his gaze on Sasuke. As if to make a point, the shadow on Sasuke's neck squeezed a little. Slowly, the flame-like marks on the Uchiha's skin receded to his shoulder, and the chakra disappeared. He staggered and fell.

"Sasuke!" Sakura pined, and rushed to catch him.

Shikamaru just watched. "Hm. Troublesome."

"We should get to the tower. It's almost at the end of the time limit." They all nodded and jumped away into the forest.

Naruto slowly turned his head to peer behind him. By the light of the torches lining the walls he could see a woman. She was tall, and had blue hair with what looked like a paper flower perched on top of her head. Her cloak was black with red clouds. His eyes quickly flicking to her hands, and he was correct in his assumptions: she wore purple nail polish. 'She must be an Akatsuki,' he realized. Looking closer, he could se she wore a ring on her left ring finger that had the kanji for 'White' printed on it. He could see that she was very beautiful, and, when he noticed her studying him, his face burned crimson and looked away.

"Finished staring?" she asked abruptly, and smirked.

Jerking out of his trance, he nodded, not knowing what else to do.

"Well, since you've waken up, I'll bring you to Leader-sama. Come along." She turned and started to walk down the passage.

It was a very long way to the end of the passage, and they passed multiple doors, and at one marked with a kanji for 'Blue-Green'. The woman knocked on it, and called, "Deidara!" Naruto could hear a muffled thump. After a moment of silence, the door opened.

"Dammit woman! Can't I get a moment of sleep around here!" said a very tall, flustered looking… shark…thing. The man had high cheekbones, a squarish nose, a wide mouth, and three gill-like markings under each beady eye. He was similarly garbed to the woman. Noticing Naruto, who was trying to hide behind the woman, he stopped.

"You've been asleep for six hours, Kisame. You don't need any more. As you can see, our visitor has waken up."

"Eh? This is him? He's…different. This isn't how he was when we found him."

"This is supposedly what the foxes chakra did to his body. We need to meet with Leader-sama"

Nodding in understanding, Kisame withdrew into his chambers, closing the doors. "Tell them I'll come in a minute. Okay, Konan?" he said, his voice contorted by a loud yawn.

The woman, who Naruto know knew as Konan, clenched her teeth in anger, then relaxed. "Now, Kisame," she crooned. "You wouldn't want to have to get the sushi treatment again, would you?"

"NO!" he screamed from behind the doors. "I mean, uh you wouldn't do _that_, would you?"

"Of course I wouldn't, but if you don't come, I will have to make a few exceptions."

"Um, -gulp- heh heh. I-I don't care what you do. I'm getting some more sleep!"

Konan turned to the fox-boy standing beside her. "Excuse me for a moment," she asked. Then she turned the knob of the door and entered.

"WAAAAARGH! All right! All right! I'll come!" Kisame screamed from inside.

"Good. Now tell Itachi and the others to get their asses ready for a meeting with Leader-sama or suffer the consequences."

She closed the door and continued down the hall. Naruto, now thoroughly scared, followed suit.

"As they walked, Naruto realized something. 'Hey furball.' He only heard snoring in his mind. He tried again 'HEY FURBALL!' The snoring ended with a snort.

"**Hey, gaki. What's the meaning off this? You dare wake the Kyuubi no Kitsune?"**

… 'Whatever. I was wondering, why did you help me before. I would think that you would want to leave my body.'

"Usually, I would, but there are a couple of reasons why I don't. One, being extracted sucks. It happened once before, seconds after I was tried to be sealed into an adult human in some far away monk country. They realized that the seal was too weak and quickly extracted me and transported me very far away with a jutsu. The second reason is, even if the Akatsuki extracted me, no seal can keep a demon of my power inside an adult body. Even if the monks hadn't extracted me, my chakra would have conflicted with his fully formed chakra coils and blown him apart. Then, I would go to the very deepest pit in hell, a place even I would hate being. The blowing up part is also very painful."

'Wait. Since when can you talk to me?'

"The combining of my chakra with yours partly fused our minds. I can now talk to you whenever I feel like, and you can talk to me."

'Another question. How did you know those things about Itachi and the Akatsuki? You've been sealed in me for twelve years.'

"That answer is very simple. Even if I've been sealed in you, I'm not an idiot. The Akatsuki were formed almost fifty years ago. I send foxes and demons out to gather information about current events in the world. I know about Itachi because of the same reason I know about your Yondaime Hokage. When you were eight, Itachi massacred his clan. Everybody around you talked about it, but you were too young to really understand what it meant. There were rumors going around that he had joined a criminal organization, and I know he and Kisame joined the Akatsuki because they were the ones who picked you up it the Forest of Death. Every time a strong ninja disappeared from a foreign country, only the ninja knew about it. Word leaked out to the civilian population, and I listened to the rumors. I then put two and two together, and I had a good amount of information on he Akatsuki.

They traveled through some more hallways until they reached two large doors. They slowly opened, and the occupants turned their heads toward Konan and Naruto. The room was a large stone cavern. Seven people (A/N: But I don't know exactly what to call Zetsu.) were lined up before a desk with a large chair behind it. The young jinchuuriki could see another figure sitting in it. A door was in a far corner behind the desk. The person on the far left was hunched over. He had a stony-looking face and strips of black hair. He wore a sand hitai-ate. A black bandanna covered the lower half of his face. To the side of him was a man with combed-back white hair and icy blue eyes. On his right was a man with a cloth head covering over his shoulders. He had a forehead protector with a waterfall symbol on it, and it had a triangular piece of cloth behind it. He also had a bandanna covering the lower half of his face. The two standing next to him were who Naruto remembered as Kisame and Itachi. The blue-skinned man smirked while Itachi just regarded him calmly. To the right of them was a plant-like man. His body was engulfed with what looked like an open venus fly trap. He had green hair and yellow eyes. His skin on one half of his face was pure white, while the other half was black. They all wore black cloaks with red clouds on them, though the white-haired man's was open, showing his chest.

"So, you've come." Said the figure in the chair.

Konan nodded, "Hai, Leader-sama."

"Leader-sama" addressed the other Akatsuki members, "Introduce your selves to our guest."

The green plant man spoke first, "I am Zetsu"

Itachi and Kisame introduced themselves next. After they finished, the former waterfall shinobi spoke.

"I am Kakuzu"

"I am Hidan", said the white-haired man.

"Sasori." the hunched-over figure said simply.

Leader stepped out from the shadows. He had flaming orange, spike hair. His eyes were red and he had three studs going down each side of his nose. "I am Pein."

They all looked at him for a few moments.

"And you are?" Pein asked.

"Oh. I am Naruto Uzumaki. Number one ninja and the next Hokage!"

"I see. Well, let's get down to business," Pein sighed. "We have captured you in order to extract your Bijuu. I case you don't know of it yet, Bijuu are greater demons. One was sealed into you at birth, probably by a Kage or a late Kage. Since you have partially fused with your demon, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, we are not able to extract it witho—BOOOOOM!

There was a large explosion on one of the wall of the cavern. Through the dust, a figure stood up. When the dust cleared, there was another, feminine-looking man in an Akatsuki cloak. He had long blonde hair, which was tied up in a ponytail. Some of his hair covered his left eye.

"Hello everybody!"

"Deidara! You're late." growled Sasori.

"Gomen. I got caught up in my hobbies. I was just designing a new explosive and…" he trailed of as Konan seemed to grow and loom over him, flames in the background."

"DEIDARA! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO BLOW HOLES IN THE MEETING ROOM'S WALLS! DO YOU EVER LISTEN?" Deidara cowered in fear before her womanly might. Konan hit him on the head, leaving him in a six-foot crater in the ground. Everybody else just sweatdropped.

"Not my floor" Pein whimpered dejectedly.

"SHUT UP!"

He wisely shut his mouth as Konan turned to him. (A/N: She's got them all whipped, hasn't she?)

Deidara amazing recovered and noticed Naruto. "Hello! I am Deidara, explosive specialist."

Naruto sweatdropped, "I've noticed."

"Well if I can continue," Pein spoke. "Since you are partially fused with your demon, we cannot extract the Kyuubi without killing both you and him. You have two choices: You join the Akatsuki, or we kill you."

"W-what? You aren't going to let me go?" Naruto stammered.

Pein shrugged, "Why should we give Konoha back their potentially most powerful ninja?"

"**Hey gaki."** Kyuubi said. **"You should join them. First of all, if you don't, they'll kill you. Second, you would become extremely strong training with S-classed missing-nin. Third, hardly anyone in Konoha ever treated you well. They either ignored you or beat you up at first sight."**

'I guess your right.' Naruto turned to Pein. "I'll join."

"Good choice. Now I—." He scowled. "Oi, Kamilia. Stop eavesdropping." There was a loud 'Eeeep' from the door behind his chair. It slowly opened, and a short figure came out. It was a young girl who looked to be about seven with blue hair. She had red eyes, and a nose piercing. She wore a plain black, ankle-length cloak.

"G-gomen, Father. I heard Deaidara-san's explosion from my room and came to see what it was. I heard the meeting and I couldn't help but listen in." She noticed Konan. "Mother, you're here to?"

"Mother?" asked Naruto.

Kamilia saw his whisker markings, ears and tail. "Kawaiiiiii!" she squealed. She glomped him, and began to pets his ears and snuggle his tail.

"Yes," Konan explained. "She is our daughter. Pein and I are married." She held up her left hand, showing him her ring. Pein did the same. His ring had the kanji for 'Zero' on it. His ring was also on his left ring finger. Naruto extracted himself from the squealing girl, as Pein continued.

"You are not a full member yet. You will have to undergo fire, water, ice, and wind ninjutsu and genjutsu training with Itachi, physical training and taijutsu with Kisame, earth and rock-based jutsus Deidara, and weapons training with Sasori. When you are finished, and they each deem you ready, you will take a test in order to join. Usually the test is a fight to the death with the weakest member, but since we are not up to our full ten in numbers, we will have to create a different one. You are dismissed. Go back to you room until we send for you again to begin your training."

Wordlessly, Naruto left.

My first fight scene! I hoped you liked it. I made the sound nin fight a little more gory for a reason. I personally think that the sound ninja are little insignificant gnats that should be exterminated as soon as possible. I made team 10 come late because I wanted sakura to hurt. Kisame and Deidara are going to be made out as the "punching bags" of the Akatsuki. They are very immature in my fic and they, with Naruto, will get into all sorts of trouble. Deidara is very Tobi-like because Tobi won't be in my fic and I need someone with his child-like personality.


	4. Author's Note Chap come soon!

This is just a short notification about my fic. I am now co-authoring Of Foxes and Ninja with WhoFlungPoo. Half of the credit will go to him. IMPORTANT: Kamilia's name was really meant to be Harikonotora (Hari) but the chap wouldn't update!


	5. Temporary Hiatus Notification

I am just letting all the readers of my fic know that I am putting Of Foxes and Ninja on temporary hiatus. I am going to write the whole story and then post it consistently chapter by chapter when it is either finished or at least 50,000 words. If you are reading this now, KEEP REVIEWING! I am not stopping this fic forever, and I will still read and consider all of your ideas! So, until next time!

Signing off, BookMaster3000


	6. Good News

First, an apology:

That temporary hiatus chapter kind of turned into a permanent hiatus chapter, and after that, OF&N kind of fell through the cracks. I continued writing this fic for about 1.5 chapters after that.

However, GOOD NEWS. I will be rewriting Of Foxes and Ninja and putting it up on for the enjoyment of the general public. I am already more than halfway through the rewriting of the first chapter, and you can all look forward to it by tomorrow night (I am on the east coast US) unless I make it super uber and long with a nice steaming chunk of new material on the side. Then maybe an extra day will be needed. You can see my reasoning for starting it back up in the rather long (at least it looks long in Word everything looks much shorter reading it online) introduction that I wrote for the new first chapter. It will be posted as a new fic, I have not come up with a new title for it, if you want to help me out with some ideas or tell me to keep it the same then lets hope somebody actually reads this before tomorrow night. I can't really expect anyone to read this so quickly after I abandoned you guys TWO FREAKING YEARS AGO and for that, I am deeply apologetic. A heads up, don't expect me to update once a week, it will more likely be somewhat randomly once a month unless I really get on a roll or smash my computer to bits. So look for it on my profile (my new username is SolitaryWordsmith) over the next couple of days. I will post yet another update chapter notifying you of its presence on the Web.

See you all soon!

Solitary Wordsmith


	7. New story is up!

Quick update: The new version of "Of Foxes and Ninja" is up! You can find it on my profile!


End file.
